A Ripley Update

 It is more than a little humbling and frankly downright embarrassing to admit that you may not be as smart as a four-month-old puppy.

We enrolled Ripley in Puppy School and took him to his first class last Tuesday. Yes, we are a little prejudiced, but we went fully expecting him to be valedictorian of his class.  As it turned out, he could have been as dumb as recycled dirt and still have been top dog - we were the only ones to sign up for the class.  Even so, he excelled.

The trainer started out by showing us how to use a combination of voice and hand signals to get Ripley to sit and lie down.  Each success was rewarded with a treat, and it didn't take him more than a few times to get the program down pat.

After just a few repetitions he "accidentally" dropped his treat and acted like he lost it.  Since immediate validation is necessary to connect the action with the reward, we gave him another treat.  Now he tries that several times a day.  It leaves me wondering who is training who.

57th Anniversary

Vietnamese Second Cousin

 Back in August, my daughter Cheryl was contacted by a genealogist who suggested that she might have a Vietnamese half-sister. Read about it here.  

The mystery has now been solved.  

The girl's father was actually one of my cousins on my mother's side of the family.  He was enough younger than me that it never occurred to me that he would have served in Viet Nam.  He went from having no children he was aware of to becoming a great-grandfather overnight, and I learned I have a Vietnamese second cousin.

DTV SCAM

 If you saw yesterday's post, you know that I thought I was getting a good deal on my DirecTV subscription via a cross promotion with Ebay.  Honey was sure it was a scam, but it was so well done that I was convinced it was the real deal.

If something sounds too good to be true, it isn't!

I should have listened to her.  That's always true but this time it cost me $500 and change that we will never see again!  

Just so you know, if you use your credit card to buy pre-paid gift cards, there is no way to ever get your money back.

DTV ATT EBAY

 I got a really strange call yesterday from DirecTV.  

Honey was sure it was a scam - we have had scammers claiming to be from DirecTV call us before - but this one had me call back at a number that was obviously a valid AT&T/DirecTV number.

Anyway, they were pushing a promotion that would cut our DirecTV bill in half and add premium channels for the next two years.  All I had to do was pay the next six months premiums today and pay them with Ebay pre-paid cards!  

The guy on the phone assured me that Ebay cards were readily available at Walgreen's, CVS, Kroger, just about anywhere except Walmart.  Our local Walgreen's was out but I found them at Kroger.

After an hour of driving to acquire the cards, I called DirecTV back and gave them the promo code and numbers off the cards.  That's all there was to it - done deal.

I'm also supposed to get an $80 credit on my account (It's there, I can see that on their website) and a pre-paid VISA card (interesting that it's a VISA and not an Ebay card since this was an Ebay promotion) that is supposed to come in the mail.

The Victoria Effect

 I learned to drive in a car identical to this, a 1951 Ford Victoria two door hardtop.  I was eleven or twelve when my dad first let me drive back and forth on our driveway - backing up to the street then forward to the garage and repeat.  I don't know how many miles I logged that way, but by the time I first drove on the street, I could back as well as I could go forward and had no trouble parallel parking.  I drove the same route about a zillion times in my mother's 52 Chevy, but the Ford was the first.

There was one other permanent effect from learning on that Ford.  As you can see in the picture above, the ignition switch was located on the left side of the dashboard.  I have never owned another vehicle where the key went in on the left of the steering column, but almost seventy years later I still carry my car keys in my left pocket.

Lingering

 

I know I've mentioned in the past that I consider Wright brand bacon to be the best there is.

Let me qualify that - Wright Hickory Smoked bacon is the best., and their Apple Wood bacon is OK.   

Back about the first of December, I accidentally picked up a package of Maple bacon that was mixed in with the Hickory.  I'll never do that again.  The bacon tasted OK - a little sweet, but not bad.  The problem was it stunk up the whole house - smelled like we had washed the walls with maple syrup!

In spite of temperatures in the 40s, we opened windows and placed a large fan blowing out the back door.  Several hours later, we boiled vinegar in the microwave and set several bowls of vinegar around the house overnight.  We burned scented candles in several rooms.  

We finally got the smell to a manageable level.  It may not be gone, but we don't notice it anymore.

Still, just this morning, I opened the microwave and got an unmistakable whiff of maple.